One can't help but feel bad for Kuldeep Yadav for not getting a single game in the three-game ODI rubber against England that ended on Sunday. India ended up on the losing side with a 2-1 result.
Of all the players from the original squad, Kuldeep was the only one who didn't feature in any of the three matches for Shubman Gill's team. India played four fast bowlers in the series decider, with Axar Patel being the only spinner in the Playing XI, and he was quite ineffectual with figures of 0/61 in his quota of 10 overs. When the Indian captain was asked why Kuldeep wasn't considered for the game, he said. “So the matches that we played prior to this, we had seen the wickets were not offering that much to the spinners. Whenever spinners came into bowl, we felt that we kind of had to go defensive, whenever the fast bowlers were bowling, it felt like something was happening. And that was the thought process behind not bringing in an extra spinner."
However, when English spinners came on to bowl, defending 387, they did very well. Adil Rashid, Will Jacks, Jacob Bethell all bowled very well. Bethell was particularly impressive, considering he is a part-timer, and he removed the most important batter of the Indian innings as he bowled Rohit Sharma for 138. Gill explained that the pitch got a bit slow in the latter half of the match.
“With the fast bowlers, you obviously want to create pressure and see chances get created. Maybe in hindsight, looking at the wicket, I think it got a little bit slow. When we were bowling and when Axar bhai was bowling for us, it didn’t look like the wicket would get that slow, but when they came into bowl, it did look like the wicket got a bit slower as the game went on,” he said.
Whatever Gill says, the truth of the matter is the current team management under Gautam Gambhir is more keen on playing all-rounders, and because batting is not Kuldeep's strong suit -- say, compared to Axar Patel and Washington Sundar -- he often ends up not making it to the Playing XI. Kuldeep played one ODI against Afghanistan last month at home and went wicketless. Earlier this year, in three ODIs against New Zealand, he took just three wickets and was often very expensive.
Be that as it may, Kuldeep deserved at least one game. Or why was he taken to England?